Phase 1b/2a Open-Label, Multiple-Dose, Dose-Escalation Study to Evaluate the Safety and Tolerability of SNS01-T Administered by Intravenous Infusion in Patients with Relapsed or Refractory Multiple Myeloma.

Abstract 2973

Eukaryotic translation initiation Factor 5A (eIF5A) has been implicated in the regulation of apoptosis and is the only known protein to be modified by hypusination. Hypusinated eIF5A is the predominant form of eIF5A in cancer cells. However, in its unhypusinated form, eIF5A is pro-apoptotic. SNS01-T, designed to treat B-cell cancers, consists of two active components: a plasmid DNA expressing eIF5AK50R (human eIF5A containing a lysine to arginine substitution at position 50) which remains pro-apoptotic because it cannot be hypusinated, and an siRNA against an untranslated region of native eIF5A mRNA. When these two components are combined with linear polyethyleneimine (PEI), the nucleic acids are condensed into nanoparticles for protection from degradation in the blood and enhanced delivery to tissues. The eIF5AK50R transgene is under the control of the B29 promoter and enhancer, which restricts expression to B cells. The mode of action of SNS01-T is to use an eIF5A-specific siRNA to deplete the pool of hypusinated eIF5A in myeloma cells while simultaneously adding pro-apoptotic eIF5AK50R. In vitro cell studies and in vivo xenograft studies have demonstrated the efficacy of this approach. Eligible patients are enrolled sequentially into four cohorts of increasingly higher doses. Each cohort will receive SNS01-T by intravenous infusion twice weekly for 6 consecutive weeks and then be observed every 4 weeks during a 24-week follow-up period. Eligible patients must have been diagnosed with multiple myeloma according to IMWG criteria, have measurable disease, have relapsed disease after two or more prior treatment regimens, have a life expectancy of at least 3 months, and not be eligible to receive any other standard therapy known to extend life expectancy. The primary objective is to evaluate the safety and tolerability of multiple ascending doses of SNS01-T. Secondary objectives include pharmacokinetics, immunogenicity studies, proinflammatory cytokine quantitation, and therapeutic efficacy. The required number of 3 patients completed the dosing schedule in Cohort 1 from a total of 6 patients enrolled. Two of three patients had not progressed on treatment, based on standard response criteria including the monoclonal protein, and were considered stable at week 3 and week 6 the end of the dosing regimen. Three patients were withdrawn from the study by their physicians due to disease progression before completing treatment. One of the responding patients has continued to have stable disease at week 10, a month after the end of treatment with SNS01-T. The first group of patients received 0.0125 mg/kg, approximately 1 mg per patient by intravenous infusion. The planned dose levels for the second, third and fourth groups are 0.05, 0.2 and 0.375 mg/kg, respectively. The results to date of this first in man clinical trial indicate that SNS01-T was safely administered without dose-limiting toxicities in the first group of multiple myeloma patients. The MTD has not yet been reached. (Clinical Trials.gov Identifier: NCT01435720.)